


Youth Is The Gift Of Nature

by beargirl1393



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Good Malfoys, Good Severus Snape, Kid Fic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parental Draco Malfoy, Parental Harry Potter, Post-Deathly Hallows AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-27 00:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9937694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beargirl1393/pseuds/beargirl1393
Summary: Due to a Potions accident, both Severus Snape and Remus Lupin have been de-aged. Both are now three months old, and it's up to Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy to put their rivalry aside for long enough to take care of them until an antidote can be found.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set after the second Wizarding War, but there will be a few canonical differences.
> 
> *First, obviously, Severus and Remus aren't dead. There are a few other characters who were made dead and who aren't, but they'll be revealed as the plot needs it.
> 
> *Second, since Draco and Harry will have enough trouble handling two three month olds, I decided that Teddy can't exist. That would add a whole layer of complexity that wouldn't fit with the plot. So, for the purposes of this, Tonks never dated Remus, they didn't get married, and they don't have a son together.
> 
> *The title is from part of a quote. 'Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art'. I thought it fit pretty well like this.
> 
> *Written for a challenge on Potions & Snitches.
> 
> *I /am/ still working on my other stories, but I hit a bit of a block on them, meaning I had to step away for a bit. I've always liked the de-aging concept and as I haven't explored it very much yet, this prompt was perfect.
> 
> (If this shows up twice, I'm so sorry! For some reason, AO3 was giving me a hard time posting this)

“This is all Longbottom’s fault,” Draco muttered, slouching in his seat. He had never spent much time in the hospital wing, only needing to be taken there a handful of times during his years at Hogwarts. One of those times was solely Potter’s fault, something Harry himself agreed with, and now this time the blame rested solely on Longbottom’s quivering shoulders. “I mean, he survived a war, he stood up to the Dark Lord, and Potions class is what makes him lose it?”

Harry could agree, to a point. After everything they had seen and done, including Neville defying Voldemort and the Carrows as well as single-handedly destroying a Horcrux, it was a bit unbelievable that he was still afraid of Snape. Still, he had to defend his friend. “Snape’s picked on him in Potions since first year, Malfoy. It’s pretty much a conditioned response for Neville to hate Potions. He was only in there because Professor Sprout sent him.” Even after the war, there was no way Snape would accept Neville into a NEWT-level Potions class. He didn’t even like having Harry and Ron there overmuch.

Draco conceded the point, but kept up his grumbling. “It was a simple assignment, Potter. Even you could’ve done it. Go to Professor Snape, ask him if he needed any ingredients from the plants Sprout had her eighth years tending today. He had to wait ten minutes while Snape discussed his new Wolfsbane Potion with Lupin, and not go anywhere near the table where Snape had his experimental potions brewing. So what does the clumsy idiot do? Blunder into the table and upset a cauldron full of experimental potion over both Snape and Lupin. We don’t even know what happened to them! For all we know, McGonagall wants us here because you’re the closest thing Lupin has to family and I’m the same for Snape, and we have to start working out funeral arrangements.”

Harry shuddered at the thought. Post-war, relieved of the burden of spying and mostly recovered from the effects of Nagini’s venom, Snape was fairly tolerable. He mostly ignored Harry, aside from his rather formal thanks after Harry helped to keep him out of Azkaban, and that was something Harry could handle. Remus had been given the job teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts , on the condition that Snape once again brewed Wolfsbane for him, and Harry tended to spend time when he didn’t have class with him, as the professor was as close as he had to a father-figure anymore. The thought of either of them dying now, after surviving so much during both wizarding wars, wasn’t something Harry wanted to think about. Especially with the guilt Neville would feel if he was responsible.

Before Harry could say something to either convince Draco to stop talking like that or to point out that keeping an optimistic view of the situation would be the best, Headmistress McGonagall stepped out from the door near where they had been sitting. Draco informed him that it was where the professors were treated if they were ill, something he only knew from things he’d heard from older students over the years, so it had made sense to both of them that Madame Pomfrey had brought the two there after Neville had called for help.

“Mr. Malfoy, I think you will be relieved to know that your godfather is still among the land of the living,” the headmistress said, clearly having caught Draco’s last comment. “And Mr. Potter, Remus is still in good health as well.” Best to get that out of the way first, she thought, but although Harry seemed immediately relieved, Draco was still suspicious.

“So, if they’re both healthy, why aren’t they telling us this?” Draco demanded. “Do you really expect us to believe that you called us here for nothing? And if you did, that Snape wouldn’t be telling me what an idiot I am for thinking Longbottom could kill him that easily, and Lupin wouldn’t be here reassuring Potter?” Now Harry’s expression changed as well, worry taking the fore again as Draco had made a good point. If Snape and Remus were fine, both of them would have come out personally, not sent McGonagall in their place.

“I said they are healthy, Mr. Malfoy, I didn’t say they were ready for visitors yet,” Headmistress McGonagall said, eyeing the outspoken Slytherin severely. Her expression softened after a moment, seeing the same worry, albeit hidden, that she saw on Harry’s face. “Both Severus and Remus are physically healthy, perhaps even in better health than they have been in for many years. However, as a result of the experimental potion that was spilled on them, there is a…complication.”

“What complication?” Harry asked, beating Draco this time. Whatever it was, it had to be something bad if McGonagall was taking this long to tell them.

Sighing, Minerva beckoned the two young men to follow her, opening the door and ushering the two inside. It was smaller than the main infirmary, of course, as the number of injured or ill students usually outnumbered the faculty. Now, as well as the normal cabinets full of medical supplies and the beds fitted with crisp, clean linens, there were two cots under one of the windows in the room. They had been hastily Transfigured by Minerva herself, as there hadn’t been a baby in the castle in many years.

Both young men were about to ask why they were there, before a small sound from one of the cots drew them closer. Both were occupied, the one nearest to the door containing a fairly skinny three month old, black hair and pale skin contrasting with the light blue babygrow that the baby was wearing. As the child was sleeping on it’s back, both Harry and Draco could see that the clothing was magical, as there was a duck splashing in a small pond on the front of it. The other baby was dressed similarly, although the clothing had a puppy chasing it’s tail and was yellow instead, while the baby seemed more healthy, not as pale and with a more healthy amount of baby fat, and it had light brown hair.

“You can’t be serious,” Draco said, startling Harry out of his examination of the babies. He had been trying to think of any of the teachers who could possibly have children that young. He knew they couldn’t belong to any of the students at Hogwarts, the rumor mill would have ensured everyone knew before the kids were born, let alone this old. The only teachers who would be young enough to have children would be Snape and Remus, and he knew for a fact that neither of them did. “Longbottom managed to de-age Lupin and Professor Snape?”

That definitely got Harry’s attention. “What?” Looking back at the babies, he couldn’t deny that there was a resemblance. They were asleep, so there was no telling what their eye color was, but the one baby had hair as dark as Snape’s, and his skin was just as pale, while the other baby’s hair was the same color as Remus’, minus the grey streaks. “How are they babies? They’re almost forty!”

“Quietly, Mr. Potter,” the headmistress rebuked, but she sighed. “I have questioned Neville intently, after Madame Pomfrey dosed him with a Calming Draught. Severus had three cauldrons on the lab table. One was nearly finished and only needed to steep, Remus’ Wolfsbane potion-”

“How could Longbottom tell you that?” Draco cut in scathingly. “He was the worst student in the class.”

“He didn’t, Mr. Malfoy,” Minerva replied, frowning at him. She could understand that the boy, young man really, was worried about his godfather, but that didn’t give him an excuse for rudeness. “He allowed me to view the memory in the Pensieve, with Madame Pomfrey’s assistance. She has a rudimentary knowledge of potion making, it was necessary for her Mastery. She confirmed that Severus was nearly finished brewing his improved Wolfsbane potion. Another two cauldrons were on either side of the central cauldron. One was merely sitting until the contents were cool enough to be bottled, as Severus had brewed more Pepper-Up for the infirmary. The third cauldron, however, is entirely unknown. We have a sample to test, but as it was an unknown potion, we have no idea as of yet how to return them to their proper ages.”

“You mean they’re stuck like this?” Harry asked. “Who’s going to take care of them? Remus said his parents were dead, and Snape’s…”

“His parents are dead,” Draco continued when Harry trailed off. “Uncle Severus told me years ago that his mother died right before he graduated, and his father drank himself to death not long after he got his Mastery.”

“ _Uncle_ Severus?” Harry asked incredulously, completely bypassing the rest of the information that had been shared. Given what he had seen of Snape’s memories, he didn’t think that the man had mourned his parents’ passing overmuch.

Draco rolled his eyes. “He’s my godfather, he visited a lot during the summers even if I never saw him during the school year.” It was one reason among many that he hadn’t been able to wait to attend Hogwarts, because he would be able to spend more time with his godfather, at least when the man wasn’t busy and he didn’t have class. It hadn’t happened as often as he liked, but after the war it had been easier.

“Which is why you are both here,” Minerva replied, causing both young men to look at her. “Harry, you likely know that Remus has no living family. Draco, you know the same of Severus, as well as the fact that the man has few he would consider close friends. Even fewer that he would trust his life with.”

Both nodded, because neither of them could deny that their Potions Master was stubborn and paranoid, but it was what had kept him alive this long.

“I would like to ask you to both care for Severus and Remus until an antidote is found,” Minerva continued, causing Harry and Draco to gape at her. She couldn’t be serious. As their headmistress continued, they both realized that she was entirely serious. “We have already prepared a set of rooms for you both, so that you will have privacy, and your teachers will be notified of the changes.”

“What about class? We can’t take two babies along to all of our classes,” Draco pointed out. That could be downright dangerous in Potions and Herbology, possibly Care of Magical Creatures as well. The rest of the classes would be safe enough, but it would still be difficult. That did raise the question of who would teach Potions class now. Would McGonagall try to convince Slughorn to come out of retiring again? And who would be working on the antidote? The most brilliant Potions Master in Britain was currently asleep in a cot, and Draco knew that, when a potions accident did happen at Hogwarts, Severus was usually the one called upon to brew up whatever potions were needed to fix the damage, sometimes even creating entirely new potions.

“Madame Pomfrey has agreed to watch Severus and Remus when you have Potions, Herbology, and Care of Magical Creatures,” Minerva replied. “If she is too busy, or there is another reason why the boys will not be permitted in the infirmary, then I will watch them.”

Draco had more objections, but Harry tuned out the Slytherin’s complaints and the headmistress’ answers. Remus had been kind to him, and had been almost a surrogate father once the war ended. Snape hadn’t always been kind, but he had nearly given his life to make sure that Harry lived. He owed the man a life debt many times over by now, although Snape seemed to count freedom as enough of a repayment.

“I’ll do it,” Harry said, interrupting Draco and Minerva and causing them to look at him. He ignored them, looking at the two infants who were, formerly, two men he respected, even loved, in Remus’ case. “I’ll take care of them.”

Well, if Potter agreed, Draco refused to be outdone, and so, with a bit of muttering, he agreed to the headmistress’ plan as well.

He just hoped the antidote was found soon, since he though Potter was underestimating how much work a baby could be.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I forgot to mention in the last A/N regards what grade Harry, Draco, and the others their age are in. After the war, the seventeen year olds who missed their final year because of Voldemort were given the option to come back to school and graduate, and they call themselves eighth years. Not all of the students accepted the offer, some just got jobs, but that will be touched on later.

Before Minerva took the four to their new rooms, she called Madame Pomfrey in to give the boys a crash course on the care of infants. She doubted that either young man had spent much time with children at all, let alone ones as young as her colleagues currently were, so the lesson would be a good idea. Of course, not everything could be taught in such a short lesson, but at least Draco and Harry would know how to change a diaper after this, practicing on the magical dummy that the mediwitch had snapped up as neither of the sleeping babies needed changed at the moment.

“I’ll give you both a bag with supplies for now, but you’ll have to go to Hogsmede soon to buy more,” Madame Pomfrey said, beginning to fill two baby bags that Minerva had transfigured from sheets of paper. Draco, making a face of disgust at the red bags with gold lions cavorting on it, changed one of the bags to a proper Slytherin green with silver snakes slithering about. Harry rolled his eyes, but Madame Pomfrey didn’t acknowledge it. “I’m including a fair few baby books. They are a little young to understand the stories, but reading to them will help with their development. If you need to keep them entertained, even reading passages of your textbooks will work, provided that you are willing to make adjustments to how you read aloud.”

“Adjustments?” Harry asked, confused. Was something wrong with how he read now? Glancing over showed that Draco looked equally confused, which made Harry feel at least a little better. This might be entirely new to him, but at least Draco was just as lost and so the Slytherin wouldn’t be trying to show him up.

“Adjustments, yes,” Madame Pomfrey replied. “Try singing, or even just changing the pitch of your voice and accent while reading. They may be too young to understand the stories fully, but it will help them develop their language skills which will be necessary if we cannot find an antidote.” She didn’t want to dwell on that outcome, however, and so she continued briskly. “They will likely babble at you, and I encourage you to talk to them when they do. They’re far too young to talk yet, but this will help them to develop their conversation and social skills. Their memories develop rapidly as they grow, and speaking to them will help them store away important words, such as your names.”

Once she was finished, she handed both boys one of the baby bags, as well as cunning little slings that would keep the baby fully supported against their chests and leave their hands free. Good for when they were going to class, or otherwise just had their hands full. After that, they followed the headmistress down several floors until they reached their assigned rooms. “Everything you need should be accounted for, including your trunks,” Minerva said, before she turned to go. “Try to keep to your rooms until dinner, I will make an announcement then.”

“What about the classes?” Draco asked, curious. “You can probably get old Slughorn to come back to teach Potions again, but who’s going to cover for Lupin? It was hard enough finding a competent Defense teacher in the first place, the rest of them have been a joke.”

“So you’re admitting that Remus is a good teacher? He’ll be glad to hear that when he’s back to normal,” Harry said, smirking.

Draco’s reply made his smirk die away quickly. “If they get turned back, Potter. There’s an entire wing of St. Mungo’s that deals with potions-related accidents, and most of them are from experimental potions. Uncle Severus took me there when I was a kid, to show me why I shouldn’t fool around in his lab.” That had been a mistake he’d never made a second time, since he didn’t want to end up locked away in St. Mungo’s.

“If necessary I will teach a few classes myself until a suitable replacement is found, the other professors will as well,” Minerva replied. “But, it shouldn’t come to that. I suggest you go and explore your rooms while you have the chance, boys, as Severus and Remus won’t sleep forever.”

That was something that neither Harry or Draco had considered, so they said goodbye to the headmistress and headed into their new, hopefully temporary, rooms.

It wasn’t as bad as they considered. The common area was decorated neutrally, with light brown walls and a darker brown trim. The furniture was similarly neutral colors, in varying shades of brown, likely to keep from claims of favoritism of one House over the other. Two doors led off of the main room, aside from the one they had just entered through. Opening the first, Draco reported that it was a bathroom, done in shades of blue. Aside from the typical things one expected in a bathroom, Draco noticed a stand with two small towels, bottles of some sort, and two odd, plastic contraptions that he assumed were the baby baths that Pomfrey had mentioned earlier. She’d mentioned that, if the babies didn’t seem to like the baths, giving them a bath only a few times a week would be fine until they were old enough to start crawling.

Harry opened the other door once Draco returned, finding that it led to a small hallway with three more doors. The first one he opened clearly led to his bedroom, as it was done up like his room in Gryffindor tower, in shades of red and gold. The next one had two cots and was decorated in soothing yellow shades. Going by the cots as well as the variety of baby things, this was the babies’ room. The room on the opposite side was clearly Draco’s room, as it had been made to look like his room in the dungeons, with silver and green prevalent.

“Let’s lay these two down, and try to figure out some kind of schedule,” Harry suggested. It was easier said than done, since neither of them had much experience with babies and were wary of waking their de-aged professors up, but they managed and after a few minutes Severus was sleeping in the dark wood cot with green sheets, while Remus was in the second cot, with lighter colored wood and red sheets.

“Alright, unpack and meet in the main room?” Harry asked. “How will we hear them if they cry, though? The walls are pretty thick.”

“Monitoring spell,” Draco said, taking out his wand and showing Harry how to cast the spell. “My father showed me how, when Uncle Severus was recovering. He spent some time at our manor once he was out of St. Mungo’s, because he still needed monitoring.”

Harry filed that information away as something to ask about later, heading to his room while Draco went to the other one. As Minerva had promised, their trunks and other possessions were already waiting for them, including windows in both bedrooms with posts for their owls, if the birds wished to stay in the boys’ rooms instead of in the owlery.

It didn’t take long for Harry to unpack, and he settled in the common area to wait. He had only been sitting down for five minutes when the monitoring spell alerted him that the babies were awake and not very happy.

Draco was opening the door to the nursery when Harry arrived, and the two peered into the room together. Baby Remus was crying loudly, and Harry hurried over to see what was wrong with him. Baby Severus, Draco noted as he hurried to tend to his charge, was slightly quieter than Remus. As though he was afraid crying too loudly would be punished.

“Diapers,” both boys said in unison, grimacing. Neither of them relished the thought of changing a diaper, especially not since it was their professors who they were changing. Draco got out a changing pad and set it up on the floor along with a diaper, wipes, and the powder Pomfrey said would prevent a diaper rash, since there wasn’t room for both of them at the changing table.

Draco wasn’t quite quick enough when fastening the diaper, once he’d gotten rid of the dirty diaper and cleaned Severus up, the little boy decided to relieve himself, managing to hit dead center on Draco’s shirt. The blonde’s yell attracted Harry’s attention, and he couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the frustration on Draco’s face, and the innocence on his former professor’s.

Harry, meanwhile, learned why he shouldn’t take his eyes off the baby quickly. While he was watching Draco and laughing at his predicament, Remus rolled from his back to his stomach. If Harry hadn’t caught him quickly he would have rolled right off the changing table, which led the young Seeker to thank Quidditch for his quick reflexes.

Harry and Draco finally managed to get their miniature professors changed, and Harry volunteered to take both babies into the common area while Draco went to get cleaned up, an offer the Slytherin accepted gladly. Juggling two wriggly babies was more difficult than Harry expected, but he managed to get them into the common area without any further incidents. He laid them on their backs on the floor, smiling when they both wriggled and managed to flip over onto their stomachs after a few minutes. While the babies worked on that, Harry started reading over the schedule Madame Pomfrey gaved them.

“We have to feed them every three or four hours,” Harry said, looking up at Draco. Remus was babbling as he worked on holding his head up, while Severus seemed more interested in the texture of the carpet, repeatedly grasping it and patting at it while babbling his findings to his former colleague.  “And we have to make sure they nap twice a day for at least two hours, and the paper says they might nap in the evening too, but not as long.”

“Will they sleep at night if they’re doing all of their sleeping during the day?” Draco asked, moving to sit on the floor near the babies, keeping them between himself and Harry. He’d tidied up the nursery after changing his clothes, so he’d missed some of Harry’s earlier findings. “Still, letting them nap a lot is a good thing. They can sleep while we’re in class.”

“Apparently they’re old enough to sleep through the night,” Harry said, looking for that part of the schedule. “They might wake up if they need another bottle or changed, but apparently they’re past the waking up all the time part.” Harry couldn’t deny that he was pleased about that too. He didn’t really want to have to get up at night a lot and still have to go to class.

“Potter, if you ever hear me say that I want a kid someday, remind me of this,” Draco said, shaking his head. Their rivalry wasn’t as strong as it had been, the war had changed a lot. They weren’t friends, but they also weren’t enemies anymore. They were acquaintances, in Draco’s opinion, which would work well enough while they were taking care of their professors. “We need to talk about their names too.”

“What about their names?” Harry asked, confused. They knew both of the professor’s first names, so he didn’t see the problem. “McGonagall is going to tell the school about what happened at dinner, so it’s not like we have to keep it a secret.”

“But calling them ‘Severus’ and ‘Remus’ sounds odd, I never called him by his first name before,” Draco pointed out. His parents had raised him better than that, and so for adults he respected, he would use appropriate honorifics.

“Yeah, it makes me feel like Snape’s going to show up and take ten points from Gryffindor,” Harry admitted. “Well, what about a nickname? Babies have nicknames all the time, and it’ll be easier to keep the babies separate from the adults.”

“Father sometimes calls Uncle Severus ‘Sev’,” Draco suggested after a moment. “That could work.”

“Rem sounds weird though,” Harry said, grimacing. “Remy isn’t too bad though. Sevy and Remy?”

Draco snorted at that. “Potter, I’ll give you ten galleons if you call him ‘Sevy’ to his face once he’s an adult.” It would be a good enough nickname for the baby until then though. “At least none of the other potions were spilled, Pomfrey will need her Pepper-Up still and…”

“Malfoy?” Harry asked, watching at the Slytherin trailed off and turned paler than normal.

“Potter, what was Professor Snape brewing besides his experimental potion?” Draco asked, looking down at Remy.

“Pepper-Up, you already said that,” Harry said, confused. “Pepper-Up and…” he trailed off as well, focusing on the brown haired baby who had joined in Sevy’s game with the carpet. “Wolfsbane.”

“Babies can’t take the Wolfsbane Potion, Potter,” Draco added. “And the full moon is next week.”

“We need to talk to Madame Pomfrey, now,” Harry decided, scooping Remy up off of the floor.

“Way ahead of you, Potter,” Draco replied, picking up Sevy and heading to get the diaper bags, Harry right behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not entirely sure about the nicknames, so if you have a better idea about what to call them, let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

“Why didn’t we ask about this sooner?” Harry asked, hurrying after Draco down the hallway. Neither boy had stopped to reattach the carriers, although they had the foresight to grab the diaper bags in case they needed them. “I mean, Remus is a werewolf, we both know that. Why didn’t we think to ask Madame Pomfrey what to do with him during the full moons?”

“Because when dealing with my godfather and Defense professor being turned into infants, my first thought isn’t ‘what do we do with them during the full moon’?” Draco retorted, shifting his hold on Severus so that the baby couldn’t pull his hair. Harry didn’t have a similar problem with Remus, due to the simple fact that his hair was shorter than Draco’s and, regardless of how much Remus tried, he couldn’t reach Harry’s hair. “I didn’t even think about it, babies can’t take the Wolfsbane potion. It’s not even safe for older kids; werewolves have to be eighteen before they can take it.”

“How do you know that?” Harry asked, exasperated. He wasn’t the best student in Potions, he would admit that. Even now, when Snape didn’t have to act like he hated his guts (or actually didn’t hate his guts, either or), he wasn’t the best. He was okay, but he’d never be a prodigy. Draco had always been good, about at Hermione’s level when it came to Potions, but he didn’t know how the other teenager knew that.

“Because Uncle Severus told me,” Draco said simply, sighing and adjusting his hold on Severus, or Sevy, as he’d need to get used to calling his godfather. The baby’s fussing was getting annoying, so letting him play with his hair was the better alternative right now. “He taught me a little about Potions over the summers. And I would ask what he was working on whenever I’d visit, to be polite. A lot of it went over my head.” He wasn’t ashamed to admit that, as although he was better at Potions than most of their year, he wasn’t a prodigy by any means, and certainly not at Severus Snape’s level. “Last time I visited him, he explained what his experimental potion was supposed to do. Something about making it possible to brew, bottle, and store the potion, rather than having to brew it specially. It would be more affordable to werewolves this way, and better provide anonymity.”

“And he told you that babies can’t take the potion somewhere in that?” Harry asked, confused. How did the bottling of the potion have anything to do with the age of the taker?

“I asked if there would be more werewolves at Hogwarts, now that he was making it more affordable for lycanthropes to deal with the full moons,” Draco explained. “He said no, and lectured me about the reasons why the potion was unsafe for consumption by children. That was going to be his next step, if the current version worked.” At least it would, theoretically, be able to be saved until Lupin was restored to his proper age again.

Harry just shook his head and breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the hospital wing. He thought that, if Snape would just explain things that simply, then Potions class would be a lot less difficult for everyone, but that was a thought for another day. It didn’t take either of them long to locate Madame Pomfrey once they were in the hospital wing, but her reaction to their worries surprised them.

Namely, her lack of worry about the fact that they would have a de-aged werewolf on their hands in less than a week. Harry was the one brave enough to risk the mediwitch’s wrath by asking that question.

“Remus isn’t any more dangerous at this moment than Severus is,” Madame Pomfrey said simply, conjuring up two stuffed animals, one a phoenix and the other an augery, and passing them to the two babies. Unsurprisingly, at least to Harry’s mind, Sevy took the augery while Remy took the phoenix. “According to the information the headmaster provided me with when Remus was accepted into Hogwarts, he was bitten shortly before his fifth birthday.” Both Madame Pomfrey and Draco looked at Harry, who nodded in confirmation.

“He told me, once when I asked. His dad was able to stop Greyback from killing him, but not from infecting him,” Harry said. “His parents took him to healers, trying to find a cure, but there’s no cure for lycanthropy. They all thought that he’d never get the chance at a decent magical education.”

“Most werewolves don’t, or at least not a traditional one,” Madame Pomfrey sighed. The babies were contently chewing on their stuffed animals, so there wasn’t much worry about a disruption from their quarter for the moment. “Albus wanted to give Remus a chance regardless of his condition, and you know the rest.”

Draco and Harry both nodded. The Whomping Willow was planted, with Remus being smuggled out of the school whenever the moon was full, so that he could go through his transformations without anyone becoming aware of the fact that there was indeed a werewolf at Hogwarts. “But that doesn’t explain why he’s harmless now,” Draco pointed out. “We can’t just abandon a baby in the Shrieking Shack, and he can’t take the Wolfsbane potion.”

“Correct, Mr. Malfoy, but you are missing one crucial bit of knowledge,” the mediwitch countered. “Remus and Severus were not simply made younger. They were taken back to the exact state they were in when they were three months old. Severus is slightly smaller than Remus, as a result of his poor nutrition at that stage of his life.”

“And Remus is safe, because he isn’t going to become a werewolf again until he’s four or five, or when an antidote is found,” Harry realized. “So there won’t be a miniaturized werewolf running around next week?”

“No, Mr. Potter, there will not be,” Madame Pomfrey confirmed. “Remus is no more dangerous than any typical three month old wizard.”

“Meaning, outside of a few instances of accidental magic, we should be safe,” Draco replied, relieved. He may have never had personal contact with any werewolf other than Fenrir and the wolves in his pack, but those experiences were more than enough for him. He never wanted to be in the presence of a werewolf during the full moon, not unless said werewolf had taken the Wolfsbane potion. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?” He was glad that it had been revealed now, but it would have saved a lot of worry if the mediwitch had just told them that when she was giving them directions about taking care of children.

“If you hadn’t noticed, Mr. Malfoy, I have had rather a lot to do today,” Madame Pomfrey pointed out, a trifle testily. “Aside from dealing with the usual accidents that come from mixing teenagers and magic, I have also been researching aging and de-aging potions in an attempt to discover what Severus was researching and how its effects can be reversed. I also needed to give both you and Mr. Potter a lesson on tending to children while going about my usual duties. I believe that I can be forgiven for making a mistake.”

Draco seemed torn between making a sarcastic remark and looking down sheepishly, so Harry shifted his hold on Remus and grabbed Draco’s sleeve, tugging the other teen after him.

“What was that for?” Draco snapped once they were in the hallway, Severus and Remus still enamored with their new stuffed animals. Little things apparently made babies happy, he noted absently. “And stop pulling on my sleeve, this is a new shirt.”

“Clothes horse,” Harry muttered, but obligingly let go of Draco’s sleeve. “And I pulled you out of there because Madame Pomfrey has a point. She made a mistake, it could happen to anyone. The important thing is, we know that Remy isn’t going to be a danger during the full moons, at least not until he’s older. Now we can go back to the room and start working on a schedule.”

“You’re lucky you were holding a baby, Potter, or I would’ve hexed you,” Draco warned, but he let the subject drop after that. Okay, maybe he had overreacted a little, but Pomfrey should’ve told them that Lupin wouldn’t be a threat. Yes, she was busy, but this was something important. Werewolves were dangerous during the full moon, and some of them had been dangerous even when the moon wasn’t full. Those werewolves were part of Fenrir’s pack, however, and all of them were dead or imprisoned now, casualties of the war. “I’m not taking all of the diaper changes.”

Harry rolled his eyes at that and kept walking. One good thing to come out of the war was that he had finally learned some patience. He wasn’t perfect, and Draco knew how to push his buttons better than anyone else, but he didn’t fly off the handle as easily as he used to. This time, he was able to recognize that Draco was just grumbling because he knew that Harry was right but didn’t want to admit it, which let the black-haired teen keep his temper. “I’ll take half of them, Draco, that’s the fairest option.”

“McGonagall should have assigned a house elf to help us,” Draco grumbled, catching the augery plush when Severus almost dropped it, handing it back to the baby before Severus could start crying. “Kreacher knows how to take care of children.”

“How would Kreacher know anything about babies?” Harry asked, confused. Kreacher hadn’t had any children of his own, as far as Harry knew. Then again, there was still a lot he didn’t know about house elves, even after Hermione’s repeated lectures about their lack of rights.

Draco gave Harry a slightly pitying, ‘how clueless are you Potter, really?’ look, but answered the question. “In pureblood families, it’s common for house elves to take care of the children. Changing diapers, feeding them, keeping them out of the way while their parents are busy, etc.”

“Molly never did that,” Harry pointed out, because he was fairly certain he would’ve heard about house elf nannies by now if that was the case. “And your parents did that to you? Had a house elf keep you out of the way?” That sounded like a fairly lonely way to grow up, although admittedly it still would’ve been a lot better than growing up with the Dursleys.

Draco shook his head. “No, I wasn’t. My father suggested it, it was common in both the Malfoy and Black families, but my mother didn’t want to trust anyone else to raise me. They were both home fairly often, as Father would only leave when he needed to oversee some aspect of one of his businesses. Mother was home as it wasn’t considered proper for her to work. If she did decide to leave the Manor, to go shopping or to a spa, she would take me with her.”

“You went to spas?” Harry asked, snickering. He hadn’t even really knew that wizards had spas, but imagining Draco in one of those fluffy white robes and having cucumbers put on his eyes was an amusing picture.

“Sometimes,” Draco said, unashamed, although his expression warned Harry to not press further. “My mother needed to relax at times, so I would go with her. Or I would stay with my father, and he would teach me family history, simple spells, history of our world…everything that I needed to know. Uncle Severus would teach me beginner potions as well, when he had the time. Usually during the summer, since he was too busy during the school year.”

“How is that fair to muggle raised kids?” Harry asked, frowning. If all purebloods were raised like Draco was, there was a definite advantage to them.

“Not all wizarding children are raised like that,” Draco said, rolling his eyes. “Look at your friend Weasley. My father was old-fashioned, however, and he believed that a decent magical education needed to begin early. The Ministry didn’t know that I was doing magic, as I was in a residence with other adult witches and wizards, so we weren’t fined.”

Harry supposed that made sense, especially with how Hermione had been able to fix his glasses in Diagon Alley without getting in trouble with the Ministry. It still seemed pretty unfair, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Still, as he followed Draco into their new rooms, he turned over a few thoughts. There was nothing he could do now, but after Severus and Remus were their proper age again…well, he’d see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always appreciated, although flames will be used to roast marshmallows and laughed over.


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